Listen to Your Heart – Crochet Tutorial

It’s that time of the year and everywhere I look there are Valentine’s Day hearts. Pink and red and all the romantic colors of the rainbow. I must confess that I’m not excited about Valentine’s Day, but I do love pink. Yes, I have grown up from a black-wearing-rock-music-loving teenager to a pink wearing Alicia Keys enthusiast. Not that I don’t still wear an awful lot of black or stopped rocking, but I certainly have opened up to other colors and musical options.

So while all these hearts are popping up all over, “Listen to Your Heart” by Alicia Keys kept playing in my head. I decided to listen and be true to myself: Pink – OK. Heart – let’s go for it. But I gotta keep my street cred (ha! what street cred?) so I chose black and neon green for complementary colors.

I added the heart to a simple ear warmer, placing hearts over my ears (because, listen…), but the pattern can be added onto any crochet piece. In fact, after making the ear warmer, I decided to give in and make a softer toned coaster. I wouldn’t mind being served a nice cup of coffee on one of those. Especially if someone else made it for me.

Notes

Important! To change colors smoothly, insert hook and pull up a loop, then complete last yarn over and pull through in the sc with the new color. When crocheting with CC1, crochet over MC so that when it’s time to switch back to MC, the yarn will be where you need it. For the increase rows (where the number of stitches in CC1 is increasing), after switching from CC1 to MC, crochet over CC1 with MC once. On the next row, insert hook under the small stretch of yarn caused by switching color (you’ll know it when you see it) and then into the next stitch for a clean switch.

Materials listed are for an adult size ear warmer. To make a cute coaster (shown below) you’ll need a smaller amount of yarn.

To add the heart to any crochet piece, just follow the chart/instructions below using the yarn and other materials your pattern calls for.

You can use the chart upside down to complete the heart coming down the opposite side of the ear warmer. The symbols for sc2tog and 2 sc in same st will be reversed, as they should be.

Materials

Abbreviations

ch – chain

sc – single crochet

st – stitch

sl st – slip stitch

sct2og – Insert hook into indicated stitch, yarn over and pull up a loop (2 loops on hook). Insert hook into next stitch, yarn over and pull up a loop (3 loops on hook). Yarn over, pull yarn through all 3 loops on the hook (1 stitch decreased).

To make an ear warmer

Row 1: With MC, ch 16. sc in 2nd ch from hook. sc in next 14 ch. (15)Row 2-16: ch 1, turn. sc in next 15 st. (15)Row 17-28: Follow instructions for row 3-14 of coaster.Row 29-72: ch 1, turn. sc in next 15 st. (15)Here we’ll start the “upside-down” heart for the other side of the ear warmer (it won’t be upside-down when you wear it…)Row 73: ch 1, turn. sc 7, 2 sc in next st, sc 7. (16)Row 74: ch 1, turn. sc 2 with MC, sc 5 with CC1, sc2tog in next st (inc) with MC, sc 5 with CC1, sc 2 with MC. (15)Row 75: ch 1, turn. sc 2 with MC, sc 5 with CC1, sc 1 with MC, sc 5 with CC1, sc 2 with MC. (15)Row 76-79: ch 1, turn. sc 2 with MC, sc 11 with CC1, sc 2 with MC. (15)Row 80: ch 1, turn. sc 3 with MC, sc 9 with CC1, sc 3 with MC. (15)Row 81: ch 1, turn. sc 4 with MC, sc 7 with CC1, sc 4 with MC. (15)Row 82: ch 1, turn. sc 5 with MC, sc 5 with CC1, sc 5 with MC. (15)Row 83: ch 1, turn. sc 6 with MC, sc 3 with CC1, sc 6 with MC. (15)Row 84: ch 1, turn. sc 7 with MC, sc 1 with CC1, sc 7 with MC. Cut CC1 leaving a long tail for weaving in. (15)Row 85-99: ch 1, turn. sc in next 15 st. (15)sc evenly along one long edge of the strip. When you reach the other end, fold piece in half right sides together and sc both edges at once to close the loop. sc along the other long edge of the strip. Bind off.To create the slip stitch embroidery around the heart: With CC2, insert hook through piece top to bottom between stitces at the bottom of the heart and pull up a loop. Insert hook again in the space between stitches 1 row up and 1 stitch to the left and pull through the loop made in the previous step. Continue making slip stitches around the heart.Weave in loose ends.

Enjoy!

And here’s the song that inspired it all…I ♥ Alicia Keys.

[This tutorial is free for commercial use. Please read the Terms & Conditions for further details.]